1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to Internet website link structures for efficiently linking to pages of the website.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a default link structure 10 associated with an Internet website, in accordance with the related art. The default website link structure 10 includes web pages 12-22 and links 25-37. Page 12 includes links 25-26, page 13 includes links 27-28, page 14 includes links 29-31, page 15 includes link 32, page 16 includes links 33-34, and page 17 includes links 35-37. Pages 18-22 have no links. The links 25-37 include pointers 25D-37D, respectively. If a first page is displayed to a user on a screen display of a computer monitor, then a “link” is defined as a portion of the first page such that if the link is “triggered” such as by single left-clicking a mouse when the cursor is on said portion of the first page, then a “default page” replaces the first page as displayed to the user on the screen display. The default page has been predefined for the link; i.e., each link has its own predefined default page which will be displayed as a result of a triggering of the link. The link's pointer points to the default page. A “pointer” from the first page to the default page identifies the default page and/or the location of the default page, so that the underlying browser or other software can display the default page to the user.
Each link has exactly one pointer (called a “default pointer”). As an example, the link 28 of page 13 has (i.e., comprises or includes) a default pointer 28D and a default page 16, wherein the default pointer 28D points to the default page 16. Thus, if a screen cursor is on link 28 of page 13 and if the user triggers link 28 of page 13, then the default page 16 replaces page 13 as displayed to the user on the screen display. Similarly, the link 25 of page 12 has a default pointer 25D that points to default page 13, the link 26 of page 12 has a default pointer 26D that points to default page 14, the link 27 of page 13 has a default pointer 27D that points to default page 15, the link 28 of page 13 has a default pointer 28D that points to default page 16, the link 29 of page 14 has a default pointer 29D that points to default page 16, the link 30 of page 14 has a default pointer 30D that points to default page 16, the link 31 of page 14 has a default pointer 31D that points to default page 17, the link 32 of page 15 has a default pointer 32D that points to default page 18, the link 33 of page 16 has a default pointer 33D that points to default page 19, the link 34 of page 16 has a default pointer 34D that points to default page 20, the link 35 of page 17 has a default pointer 35D that points to default page 21, the link 36 of page 17 has a default pointer 36D that points to default page 21, and the link 37 of page 17 has a default pointer 37D that points to default page 22. A given page may have one or more links, or no links at all (see, e.g., page 17 having three links 35-37, page 15 having the one link 32, and page 19 having no links). A given page may be a default page of one or more links (see, e.g., page 16 pointed to by three links 28-30); i.e., the given page may be pointed to by one or more pointers.
Most Internet websites have multiple pages and when a user visits a given website, the user is interested in at least several web pages of the given website. As the user revisits the given website several times, the user becomes very familiar with the layout of the given website and knows exactly what web pages the user wants to read or doesn't want to read. Unfortunately, the user is probably unable to efficiently access the web pages of interest. While the user could bookmark the web pages of interest, a large amount of bookmarking becomes unmanageable. Thus, the user may inefficiently navigate through the web pages of the given website, which increases web traffic and contributes to undesirable delays that the user experiences. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system to enable the user to more efficiently navigate through web pages of Internet website.